it seems a bit too convenient if the way influence works is that my ideological opponents are being manipulated and taken advantage of, whereas I am free from influence.

yes.

and that conception happens on all sides. i suppose that's what the alt-right media have furiously been trying to establish - that supposedly no-one is immune to media influence (even if that seems to me like the sort of thing people with massive emotional investment in the media data-stream believe - plenty of people aren't THAT interested)

the left argue they're the eternal losers. and the stats today [generally] support the idea of the top echelons of society having an *unseemly* disproportionate amount of resources. difficult, pointless even, to argue with that in 2018...

but there are always cross-currents between big state (by which i meant authority) and little state (by which i meant self-determination). no working government is able to be one or the other - even the USA where, truthfully, democrats are closer to tories.

the role of private pensions apparently brings the UK up to an average level, making this basically a massive 'optional' tax - pay up or live in aged poverty.

I'd never really thought about the fact that private pensions aren't such a central consideration in many countries. Presumably in Ireland they still are, given that it doesn't shine in that league table either?